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Manny Pacquiao, right, lands a left cross to the chest of Jessie Vargas during their welterweight title fight in November/Photo by Gene Blevins

Top Rank Inc. on Monday formally announced the welterweight title fight between champion Manny Pacquiao and Jeff Horn. They will tangle July 1 at Suncorp Stadium in Horn’s native Australia. (It will be July 2 in Australia, which is 17 hours ahead of California).

According to a news release, promoters are expecting a crowd of 55,000. Details on how it will distributed on television are forthcoming.

Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs) is the No. 2 contender to Pacquiao’s title, but he has not fought anyone of note. He did stop former champion Randall Bailey after seven rounds a year ago this month, but Bailey was 41 at the time. At 29, Horn is nine years Pacquiao’s junior. His 17 bouts have been in either Australia or New Zealand.

Suffice to say, Horn will be getting most of the fan support, being the bout will be in his backyard.

“Manny knows who will be the crowd favorite on July 1, but he can’t wait to give Australia and the world a great performance,” Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, said. “It’s going to be unbelievable event.”

Vasyl Lomachenko, left, lands a punch to the head of Roman ‘Rocky’ Martinez during the fourth round of their super featherweight title fight in June at Madison Square Garden. Lomachenko won via 5th-round TKO/Associated Press photo by Frank Franklin II

As good as Vasyl Lomachenko is, as much as his promoter Bob Arum touts him as the greatest he’s seen since a young Muhammad Ali, Lomachenko knows he is in for a real nasty time of it Saturday when he defends his super featherweight belt against hard-hitting Nicholas Walters. The two will square off at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas (on HBO).

“This is a very important bout for me because many boxing experts and many people in boxing rank Walters as the highest-rated fighter in our division,” Lomachenko said. “He is a very hard puncher and a very good boxer and for me it’s a very important thing to me to fight the best and it’s very important for me because everyone says he is a very good fighter.”

As for the Ali comparison, here’s what Arum told reporters during a conference call: “I would like to say this; that Vasyl Lomachenko is technically the best fighter that I have seen since the early Muhammad Ali. There is nobody that I have seen, and there have been a lot of great technical fighters that I have seen – Alexis Arguello was one, FloydMayweather certainly, Manny Pacquiao – but there has been nobody with the skills that Vasyl Lomachenko has.”

Lomachenko, of Ukraine, is 6-1 with four knockouts. The two-time Olympic gold-medal winner has also held a major world title in the featherweight division.

Jessie Vargas is a welterweight world champion, but he’s not exactly a household name even though he’s from Las Vegas, the fight capital of the world. If he beats MannyPacquiao on Saturday at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, that will change.

“It would definitely put me on the worldwide stage, make me that boxing star that I have been looking forward to being,” Vargas said. “I have been waiting for this for a long time and I’m glad it’s here and I am going to take advantage of it.

“The only fighters to beat Manny Pacquiao have become legends themselves. So I plan to become one of the few to beat Manny Pacquiao and also become one of the legends.”

Bob Arum, whose Top Rank Inc. is producing the ($59.95) pay-per-view feed for the card, promotes both fighters. He agrees Vargas could alter how he is viewed by the boxing world.

“He becomes not just a champion, but a superstar,” Arum said. “I will deny to him that I said that because I will have to negotiate his next fight (laughing). He would be a superstar, there is no question about that, if he were to beat Manny Pacquiao. He has a hell of a shot to do that.”

Manny Pacquiao received a visit from a rather famous fictional fighter on Saturday at Wild Card gym in Hollywood. It was none other than Sylvester Stallone of “Rocky” fame.

The two posed for pictures after Pacquiao finished sparring in preparation for his challenge to welterweight champion Jessie Vargas on Saturday at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas (on Top Rank pay-per-view).

Jessie Vargas knows one thing – a victory over Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 5 would change his career and his life. He wants that.

“It would definitely put me on the worldwide stage, make me that boxing star that I have been looking forward to being,” said Vargas, who will defend his welterweight title against Pacquiao at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. “I have been waiting for this for a long time and I’m glad it’s here and I am going to take advantage of it. The only fighters to beat Manny Pacquiao have become legends themselves. So I plan to become one of the few to beat Manny Pacquiao and also become one of the legends.”

Dewey Cooper isn’t the most well-known trainer in the world. But his passionate way of answering questions could help grow his popularity.

Cooper on Thursday was part of a conference call promoting the Nov. 5 welterweight title fight between champion Jessie Vargas and Manny Pacquiao(58-6-2, 38 KOs) at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas (on Top Rank pay-per-view, $59.95). Cooper trains Vargas, who has only 10 knockouts in 28 pro bouts. That’s a low knockout ratio of 36 percent.

But Cooper has been telling reporters that he is improving Vargas’ punching power through various techniques and exercises. He scoffs at the notion that a fighter either has power or he doesn’t, and that one can’t improve upon that power.

By the time Cooper was finished explaining to an inquiring reporter, he had left a lasting impression.

“He feels it,” Cooper said of Vargas’ newfound heavier punch. “He feels it in his knuckles, he feels it in his forearm when he hits, he feels it in his hip when he hits and it’s a natural thing, guys. For anyone in the world to say someone cannot improve on something is just ignorant. We can improve our reading speed, we can improve our running speed, we can improve our strength on a bench press, so why wouldn’t we be able to improve our punching power?

“Everything’s about technique and exercise on the right sports specific move that should make you improve. And that’s all we’ve done. It’s not rocket scientist. We’re just smart enough to know not to limit ourselves and our possibilities. We can do the improbable, we could do the impossible, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen on Nov. 5, guys.”

Vargas (27-1) has had one fight under Cooper. That was March 5 when Vargas stopped Sadam Ali in the ninth round to win the vacant title. Vargas decked Ali twice.

Manny Pacquiao is a small welterweight. Heck, he wouldn’t even be a big junior welterweight if he were still fighting in that division. It therefore wasn’t shocking to
hear his promoter – Bob Arum – talk about the possibility of Pacquiao at some point taking on super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko.

Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KOs) on Nov. 5 will challenge Jessie Vargas for his welterweight belt at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas (on Top Rank pay-per-view, $59.95). Three weeks later – on Nov. 26 – Lomachenko will defend his title against tough Nicholas Walters at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas (on HBO).

At the moment, Pacquiao and Lomachenko (6-1, 4 KOs) are fighting at 147 and 130 pounds, respectively. But Lomachenko told yours truly prior to his most recent bout this past June that he could see himself moving up another weight class or two, meaning lightweight (135 pounds) and as high as junior welterweight (140).

“Yeah, 135 to 140,” Arum said. “Manny, he can fight at 135.”

He can still make that weight?

“That’s what he says, sure,” Arum said Wednesday afternoon at Pacquiao’s camp in Hollywood. “I saw him sparring with Ray Beltran yesterday and Beltran’s a lightweight
and Beltran towered over him. He was so much bigger.”

Manny Pacquiao is scheduled to arrive at LAX at 7:30 p.m. Saturday from the Philippines to conclude his training for his Nov. 5 fight against Jessie Vargas. Pacquiao will train the last two weeks at Wild Card Boxing in Hollywood under the watchful eye of his longtime trainer Freddie Roach, who has been in the Philippines with Pacquiao.

The heck with the naysayers. According to Oscar Valdez and Jessie Magdaleno, there are plenty of reasons why fans should buy their Nov. 5 pay-per-view card that will be headlined by Manny Pacquiao challenging Jessie Vargas for his welterweight title at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Indeed, there is not as much buzz for this Pacquiao fight as usual. Valdez and Magdaleno are in title fights on the undercard, and when asked why fans should fork over the $59.95 for the Top Rank-produced feed, they let everyone know why this is a worthwhile purchase.

“Why shouldn’t they?” Magdaleno said Thursday during a workout at Jackrabbit Boxing Club in Long Beach. “They’ve got great, young talent that’s in that ring. They’ve got myself, they’ve got Jessie Vargas, they’ve got Oscar Valdez – two-time Olympian who is now a world champion. They’ve got great upcoming historical guys who are going to make history in the boxing world, and who are going to put on great shows as the years go on.

“… We are the future of boxing and we are action-packed guys who want to put on great shows as great Mexican guys. We want to live to that legend. And that’s what we’re doing. That’s why people should continue buying this pay per view card.”

Mexico’s Valdez (20-0, 18 KOs) will make the first defense of his featherweight world title when he squares off with Hiroshige Osawa (30-3-4, 19 KOs) of Japan. Valdez put his own colorful spin on why this is a solid purchase.

“First of all, you’ve got Jessie Magadaleno,” Valdez said. “Hungry lion, as they say, fighting Nonito Donaire, which, Nonito is still a tough, tough fighter. He’s one of the top fighters out there, so that;s going to be a great, great fight. Me, as a fan, I would love to see that fight. In my case, I’m fighting the WBO ranked No. 1 – Osawa. A lot of people don’t know this guy because he mainly did his career in Japan. But he’s still a tough fighter. I don’t take him lightly at all and I never will take a fighter lightly.

“In my case, I’m going to give it my best. … And then, finally, you’ve got this fighter, Pacquiao, fighting Jessie Vargas. Jessie Vargas is not easy. He could beat Pacquiao. Anyone that knows boxing knows that Jessie Vargas could beat Pacquiao. Pacquiao’s still Pacquiao. I still think Pacquiao is going to put up a good fight, he always puts up a good fight. And I think that’s why everyone should buy this fight.”

There is a fourth world-title fight on this card. It will match Zou Shiming (8-1, 2 KOs) of China against Prasitsak Papoem (39-1-2, 24 KOs) of Thailand for a vacant flyweight title.

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